UNLV close to hosting league tourney

Steve Carp

Friday, May 28, 1999 | 10:40 a.m.

Surprisingly, the Mountain West Conference office in Colorado Springs is not in a scramble mode even though in a few short weeks, it will be the sole domain of its eight member institutions.

UNLV, Utah, Brigham Young, Colorado State, Wyoming, Air Force, San Diego State and New Mexico agreed a year ago to leave the Western Athletic Conference effective July 1. That date is drawing near and commissioner Craig Thompson has a full docket of things to do.

But things are happening in a relatively orderly fashion. The major projects that Thompson and the league have been working on for the past few months are about to fall into place.

Expect an official announcement on the Thomas & Mack Center serving as home for the Mountain West postseason men's and women's basketball tournament as early as next week, though it may get pushed back to the June 7-8 presidents meeting in Colorado Springs.

The recommendation to have Las Vegas host the March 8-11, 2000, hoopfest has the approval of the MWC council. Now it just needs the presidents to sign off on it.

But Thompson said there still are a couple of minor issues to be worked out with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority before he can present the plan for the presidents' approval.

"We're still talking with the LVCVA," Thompson said. "I talked to them Monday and I hope to hear from them by the end of the week. It's still possible I'll be able to have a recommendation for the presidents in time for their meeting."

Thompson said the main issue concerns the distribution of tickets and the school-by-school breakdown.

"It's things like, 'Do we give UNLV more because they're hosting and allow say, Air Force, to take less?' " Thompson said.

"We also have to come to an agreement on the Las Vegas Bowl. Our people are very interested in packaging the two together."

Thompson said there has been little, if any, objection to the Thomas & Mack playing host to what will be the conference's showcase event.

"A lot of it has to do with where people want to go and they've indicated to us that Las Vegas is an attractive site," he said.

Las Vegas was competing with Denver, San Diego and Albuquerque for the right to host the league tournament. The LVCVA's bid was $1 million a year for three years with an option for a fourth year.

Thompson is also trying to finalize the league's inaugural television schedules for football and basketball with ESPN. He expects that to be concluded in the next few weeks.

Once that is done, "SportsWest," the league's network, will have its schedule done. Seven of the eight schools (Utah being the exception because it has an existing contract with another network) will take part in the venture.

While progress is being made on finishing off the league's "big-ticket" items, there is one major issue that the Mountain West must deal with in the weeks ahead -- the attempt to land an automatic bid to the 2000 NCAA Tournament.

When the matter came up last month, the initial response was that the new league would have to wait the mandatory five years before earning the coveted automatic bid. However, a motion was made to reconsider, and the NCAA's management council tabled ruling on the request until July.

An eight-member subcommittee has been formed and it will make a recommendation to the management council at its July 26-27 meeting at Hilton Head, S.C. That coincides with what will be the Mountain West's first major media event -- its football media preview in Colorado Springs.

Thompson said he didn't know if he'll be required to appear in person at the management council meeting. But he did say the league will have time to provide input to the subcommittee and also make its case to the management council.

It's very possible the inaugural Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas may be played without an automatic bid to the Big Dance.

"Their recommendation could hurt us or help us," Thompson said of the subcommittee. "My guess is we're probably looking at some sort of compromise ."

Thompson, who is a member of the prestigious men's basketball committee, said regardless of how things turn out his league will be represented at the 2000 NCAAs.

"I don't think it's going to matter," he said. "I expect we'll have a couple of teams go.

"If I can say anything to our coaches, it would be just take care of business on the court, win the games you're supposed to win, and everything will be fine."

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